A few important tidbits to wrap up the week before heading into the holiday weekend here in the US. The first half of this week was certainly an interesting one and I took the opportunity during the latter half to catch up on a lot of non-blog items that had previously eluded me. I'll be off until Monday celebrating Independence Day so this weekend will be a good chance to catch my breath.For the last two days, Boeing confirms that ZA001 has been progressing through its final gauntlet of system checks and a program source indicates it should be wrapped up by the close of this week. The final gauntlet was significantly shortened from eight days to just two while moving tests initially planned for this phase to the extended intermediate gauntlet. The intermediate gauntlet was completed on June 7th.
If the schedule progresses as planned, Boeing's ground testing will continue on Monday with the start of taxi testing for ZA001. The company said in its recent delay announcement that low-speed taxi tests are still permissible for the 787s without the proper fix to the upper wing section.
After these tests are completed, the first two 787s will go into a holding pattern of sorts while an interim fix for the side of body is developed, tested on ZY997 and installed on ZA001 before any green light is given to fly. No timeline has been specified internally as Boeing retools its planning, but several sources indicate that the revised plan should be available by August.
Several flight line stalls down in Everett, ZA002, painted in launch customer ANA's colors, underwent the traditionally smoky first engine start on July 1st. Boeing says the engines underwent both dry and wet test spools in the morning, minus formal ignition. The twin Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine were lit for the first time later that afternoon.
In other 787 news, ZA003 and ZA004 will be registered for their respective flight test campaigns as N787BX and N7874, respectively.
Photo Credit AS
on July 4, 2009 4:14 AM | Reply
If we wait for the FINAL fix to be tested on ZA997 and installed on ZA001, there ain't no flying before summer 2010. I guess you meant to say TEMPORARY or INTERIM?
on July 4, 2009 5:07 AM | Reply
Although informative, this post really needs to be re-read and re-written. Sentences are overly long and complicated and a few spelling mistakes.
"alluded me" - eluded is a wiser choice here
"without a the proper fix" - no comment
"as Boeing retools it planning" - ??
"several sources indicate that clarity on the plan forward for the program should be available by August" - what rubbish. Clarity?
"were spooled beginning in the morning" - no comment
I usually hate to nitpick where blogs are concerned, but for a professional aviation website the standard of editing really is appalling.
G
on July 4, 2009 5:07 AM | Reply
Hey Jon,
Some Sikorsky X2 news today! Check out the headline.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/03/x2_first_tail_drive_flights/
on July 4, 2009 5:08 AM | Reply
*there are a few spelling mistakes - oops
on July 4, 2009 7:25 AM | Reply
Gfedder, G, whatever you like to be called,
Maybe you should start your own blog then? This is Jon's blog and he is doing this on his own time to bring us this info. If there is one thing I find extremely rude is people who feel they have to correct everyone's grammar and spelling. You have no idea if he was writing this late at night or on a rush.
I think your rudeness is what is really appalling.
on July 4, 2009 8:29 AM | Reply
Happy Independence day to all fellow US citizens !
on July 4, 2009 9:58 AM | Reply
Muphry's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naruki%27s_Law
on July 4, 2009 10:21 AM | Reply
Hey Guys,
Sorry for the errors, no excuse for those on my part. I always appreciate you holding my feet to the fire. The reality is, I was off work yesterday and wanted to make sure there was something fresh on the site heading into the long weekend. I should have been more thorough in my proofreading.
Jon
on July 4, 2009 12:59 PM | Reply
Hey jon, whatever you do please do not change your style. We are so hungry for your stories a few errors here and there do not atrract our attention. So give us more, promtly!
on July 4, 2009 1:39 PM | Reply
We will be lucky if we see first flight by years out.
on July 4, 2009 2:35 PM | Reply
Continuing to fuel new 787's for relatively meaningless engine runs, thereby forcing entry into a wet fuel cell to install the "fix" (probably requiring re-washing of the tanks) is...
DUMB.
on July 4, 2009 3:06 PM | Reply
Seattle757
Point taken, but I maintain that posts on such a website should be edited/proofread to some standard.
Jon
Please excuse my abrupt manner and feel free to delete the comment. Your blogs continue to be an invaluable source of information about the 787 programme
on July 5, 2009 7:47 AM | Reply
Gosh, we ought to thank Boeing for allowing a recent Aviation Week article.
Ah, says the report: the data/model is bad; the software is okay. Sheesh, someone has been taken in by the computational modeling crowd, would not a reasonable person think? That raises so many flags to someone who knows software (CAD, CAE, CAM, KBE, AI, ... - I've done it, folks).
http://7-oops-7.blogspot.com/2009/07/scale-up-versus-extrapolation.html
The blog set up the framework for this discussion two years ago, after the Potemkin event. Well, we've been waiting all this time for some glimmer of truth to come around that big cloud of hype.
It's not easy, folks, but these issues are central to how we want the future to be. And, we have to be involved.
By the way, the blogger is not anti-composites. Here is something to ponder about a nano-tech built plant.
http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/tq/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13762442
Intuitive rumblings that lead to insecurity are very much well-founded. Ah, but do these scale-up?
Nor is the blogger anti-computation. We just need to be more quasi-empirically oriented. Hubris has no place where our safety is concerned.
on July 5, 2009 10:17 AM | Reply
Jon - did the sixth delay decision interrupt flight-test preparation: how close could they have come to meeting the revised schedule of a second-quarter first flight?
on July 5, 2009 5:49 PM | Reply
Blogging is hard enough. Trying to quickly publish is even harder.
Publications have editors to do the function that their name implies. Who edits the blog? Well, it's usually the blogger.
And, even spell checkers can get it wrong. Grammar checking? Well, it can work.
But, the old human eye was the key for centuries. Multiple eyes. Yet, they fail.
I find problems in major pubs all the time. In fact, as a graduate student, I proofed more than one textbook.
So, some give on the part of the readership is on order for these things. Chuckle or curse. It's up to the reader.
The real pains are those little errors that hide themselves. Some slip out not unlike slips of the tongue. The fingers hit different keys than what the mind thinks is going on.
Well, review and review and modify are the only way. Jon has done this, for the most part.
Clever turns of phrases or other groan-inducing usages? Well, style is an open thing in blogspace.
Maybe KISS applies here. As how many clever phrases, probably meant to occlude some implication, are meaningless when read after the fact and in another contextual situation?